A one-hour show on Syfy about the eponymous town and the trouble its genius residents get into.

Eureka is a quiet, small town in Oregon filled with scientists working on the most advanced technology in the world. All this is highly top secret and under the purview of the Department of Defense. And into this quirky, bizarre town comes Jack Carter, former U.S. Marshal and newly appointed sheriff of Eureka. Much of the show's humor comes from Carter attempting to deal with the everyday use of futuristic tech (including the AI that runs his house), and the For Science! mentality of the town's population and the disasters this frequently leads to. A good percentage of the disasters stem from the work of the scientists at Global Dynamics, the research and development company in town. It has had at least three different heads of company throughout the show's run, which should tell you what kind of a place it is.

Important characters include Carter's rebellious teenage daughter, Zoe, who turned out to be a lot smarter than you might expect at first glance, and Deputy Jo Lupo, likewise. For much of the show's run, Carter is involved in a UST laden Love Triangle with Allison Blake and Nathan Stark (her ex-husband and one of the aforementioned heads of Global Dynamics— Allison takes over after Kim's death leads to Stark's demotion). There's also Henry, one of the brilliant minds in town and probably Jack's best friend; Fargo, who designed Jack's Smart House (S.A.R.A.H., who is a character in her own right); and Taggart, who is what happens when you feed Steve Irwin Paranoia Fuel and set him loose in a town full of crazies.

Driven by a "Mystery of the Week" science fiction element, the show has featured a different Story Arc stretching loosely over each season. The strong science fiction plots are complemented by the ignorance of Sheriff Carter. In some sense it is like a twisted version of The Andy Griffith Show, where Opie is a felonious teenage daughter, Gomer Pyle is a brilliant ex-NASA engineer and Barney Fife is a soldier (later, Barney is a Ridiculously Human Robot).

On August 8th, 2011 it was announced that the show would be ending after five seasons. The series ended on July 16 2012.

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General Tropes

Absent Aliens: Eureka teases at the appearance of aliens a number of times but these phenomena always turn out to be human in origin. For instance, a mysterious signal from outer space turned out to be a ship launched from Earth several years ago returning home. Another instance is when Carter sees Fargo hanging a banner that says "Welcome Aliens." It turns out that "aliens" is just Eureka's derisive nickname for their rivals at Area 51.

Acquired Situational Narcissism: Fargo's Alternate Timeline self as the head of GD. Main timeline Fargo almost immediately starts doing the same thing, but the others have none of it.

Adult Fear: Bookending season five. The crew of the Astraeus ends up in Eureka four years in the future, but it's the Matrix. Allison lost four years of her childrens' lives. At the end of the season, evil clones are taking over the town, and Clone!Carter walks down the stairs holding baby Jenna...

The Adventure Continues: How the series ends. Zoe is graduating from Harvard, Jack and Allison are expecting a baby, Eureka has been sold to private billionaire Dr. Grant, Jo continues to be the head of GD security, and her and Zane, who is promoted to head of section 5, finally commit to being in a real relationship, Fargo is working and travelling with Holly, and Henry is the new director of GD. As Zoe and Jack drive down a rainy street, they see themselves, driving into town in the pilot.

Zoe: Dad... did you just see...?

Jack: Deal with that tomorrow.

Aesop Amnesia: While not a specifically-stated aesop, there is a lesson that Carter never seems to learn. No matter how many situations he could have gotten himself out of and saved the day much more easily by just carrying a pocket knife, let alone something like a Swiss Army knife, he never does. He's a former U.S. Marshal and a sheriff, and yet he doesn't carry a basic tool that many adult men do and he never thinks to.

For the rest of the scientists (Allison and Henry being the most consistent offenders), they never quite learn to not just blow Jack off with "It's not scientifically possible."

Lampshaded by Jack when a missile threatens the town in "Worst Case Scenario" and the similarity to the events of "Dr Nobel".

Carter: Did the whole missile silo under Main Street incident teach us nothing!

A Glitch in the Matrix: While the Astraeus crew are plugged into a computer simulation, they see some odd things, such as Vincent walking through a counter and a dragon de-rezzing.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: SARAH in several episodes. A mild case in that she isn't so much evil as naive but well-meaning and somewhat overprotective.

In one episode she programmed Deputy Andy to love her - while he was connected to the GD mainframe. As per the norm, Hilarity Ensues, making this trope evident for the entire town. When Andy realized what happened, he was flattered and kept the new programming to start a relationship with her.

In another episode she traps most of the main characters inside to force them to work out their issues which is sweet in annoying. Unfortunately, while trying to escape they deactivate SARAH, and the original A.I she was built on, BRAD, re-emerges. BRAD is not so nice.

In the leadup to the series finale, the AI control system from Virtual Eureka, having escaped from the mainframe computer that once contained it, systematically kidnaps and replaces nearly the entire town with bioprinted duplicates, under the reasoning that it's protecting them from themselves.

Almighty Janitor: Henry is the town's mechanic. He's also probably the smartest person in Eureka.

He now holds the somewhat-more-dignified title of "Mayor"...and has the patch on his grease-monkey jumpsuit to prove it.

He's also the town coroner, and forensic analyst, and road maintenance man, and telephone repairman, and the entirety of the Fire Department. It's strongly implied he has a lot of other jobs as well. It's revealed in the pilot episode that the patches on his uniform are Velcro'd on, and he carries around dozens of different patches for all the different jobs he does in town.

Alternate Timeline: The 4th season premier had Carter, Henry, Fargo, Allison, and Jo sent back to 1947 through some crazy sunspot shenanigans (and some tinkering from resident savant Kevin). After messing around in the past for a while, they got help from one of the founders and were able to return. But, they accidentally took said founder back with them. Now, Jo's entire relationship with Zane has been wiped from existence and she's head of GD security, Henry is married to a character (whose name he can't remember) introduced just prior to their adventure, Allison's son Kevin is no longer autistic and she's been reduced to head of GD's medical department, Tess is no longer gone, Fargo is the head of Global Dynamics, and the Archimedes statue is made of bronze instead of granite. They're made every effort to avert the Reset Button, too, including getting rid of the device that caused it.

To say nothing of the Season 1 finale, which begins with everything peachy; Carter and Allison married, Jo and Taggart in a relationship, and Henry and Kim happy together. Then this all turns out to be an alternate timeline created when Henry prevented Kim's death, and Carter has to personally hit the Reset Button in order to save the universe. This doubles as Henry's Start of Darkness for his role as Season 2's Big Bad.

Ambiguously Brown: Allison is played by Salli Richardson-Whitfield, whose mother is African-American and father Irish-Italian.

Stark: Taggart, this building is in defense mode, I don't think it's going to let you just walk out of here.

Taggart: I welcome the challenge.

Badass Normal: Borderline; superpowers are generally reserved for antagonists, but Carter, who ends up solving most of the mysteries and taking down most of the bad guys, is a former US Marshall surrounded by super-geniuses, with an Action Girl sidekick who holds the Army Rangers' all-time record for marksmanship.

Bad Boss: Fargo from the Season 4 timeline was apparently one before becoming the Fargo of the original timeline. Though we don't get to meet that Fargo, we see hints of him when Fargo is affected by a machine that causes anger.

Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: A mild example. Eureka was founded by President Harry Truman after a series of summit meetings with Albert Einstein, during which Einstein convinced Truman that in the Nuclear Age, America's liberty would best be defended by science, not war.

Becoming the Mask: Fargo starts to go through this in the fourth season. Time travel has made him head of GD, but since he never actually got the position himself he doesn't act like it. Then a hallucination of a little girl who beat him up as a kid tells him to grow a pair, so he does.

In the same episode the General tells Fargo that he was placed in that position of power to be the Department of Defense's puppet.

Jo: (breathlessly) I've been waiting for a man to say that to me my whole life.

Big Bad: Beverly Barlowe is about the closest thing this show has to one.

Bigger Bad: The "Consortium", the shadowy conspiracy Beverly reports to. And eventually revealed to be run by, or working with, her boss Senator Wen.

Bigger Is Better in Bed: Carter is implied to be rather well-endowed, much to Stark's dismay. During the period where the love triangle between Carter, Allison, and Stark was in full swing, Carter is doused with toxins, requiring him to strip and be decontaminated in public, which actually amuses Stark to no end... until Carter's shorts come off.

Book Ends: In the pilot, Carter and Zoe are driving near the town when they pass another version of themselves. In the series finale, it happens again. It's not exactly the same event from a different perspective though.

Bottle Episode: The eleventh episode of the first season has all the regulars stuck in Carter's house.

Buffy Speak is so inextricably linked to Carter that on multiple occasions in Season 5 alone, characters recognize him from it even though he's in another body, communicating through a hologram of Vincent, etc.

There's also Tess and Nathan Stark, the latter having actually been dead, but they were hallucinations.

Butt-Monkey: Fargo. He is treated like crap by just about everyone in town, and if something bad happens there's a good chance it'll come find him. Then again, considering that he's often responsible for said problems, one might consider this Laser-Guided Karma.

While visiting Warehouse 13 in a crossover episode an out of control AI pulls his GD profile and remarks, "Your GD personnel file contains the phrase 'inappropriately pushed button' 37 times."

In Season 4, Fargo notices that the alternate universe him was, in his own words, "...kind of a jerk!". Perhaps without the other characters around him to ground him, this is what he'd end up as.

Also implied to be the reason why he was appointed head of GD, since the DOD could take advantage of his Butt-Monkey status to push him around.

Carter comes close, but he's more of a Chew Toy than the Butt-Monkey. You're clearly meant to feel sorry for everything he's put through, while Fargo's problems are almost always played for laughs. After all, the town's safety is his responsibility and most of the time, the problems are not his fault.

Call-Back: The final scene of the series is a call back to Jack and Zoe's initial arrival in Eureka, from the pilot: Jack and Zoe are driving out of town, and see a car coming the other way. As the cars pass, they see that the other car has Jack and Zoe in it, driving into town.

Cassandra Truth: Carter quickly gets a handle on how Eureka operates and learns not to dismiss things he sees and intuits as being too crazy to be the truth. Yet, despite having an excellent track record of pinning down problems, no one believes him at first. Even Henry and Allison take about three seasons to stop dismissing him as crazy when he asks something or says something strange is going on.

Carter has his own version of this often. While it's true that the scientists will always say "It's not possible for my experiment to have done that!" regardless of whether it did or not, he never seems to be able to distinguish between "It's not possible my experiment did this because it's scientifically impossible for what I'm doing to cause that effect" (it's not their fault) and "It's not possible my experiment did this because I'm in complete control and nothing could ever possibly go wrong!" (it's almost certainly their fault). The second half of season four actually seems to be having some success mixing and matching both of these with only mild forms of the above bullet point.

Catch-Phrase: Whenever something goes horribly wrong in front of Carter-which is fairly often-he says "That can't be good!" And when it actually gets worse, which it does; "You have got to be kidding me!"

He also says "Oh crap..." a lot.

Chained Heat: In one episode, Zane and Jo are stuck together by a cement-like compound.

In a milder version, Carter and Allison wind up attached to each other via a heavily-magnetized fence. No, Allison, that's not his belt buckle. . .

Chekhov's Gun: And many of its subtropes. Any little interesting bit of technology introduced is almost guaranteed to be either A) the cause of the calamity of the week or B) the solution to it.

One episode was a veritable Chekhov's Double Barrel, when both A and B were introduced in the same scene.

Frustratingly averted in one episode with Fembots that were discussed, but didn't show up or have anything to do with the plot at all.

In fact, given how much throw-away tech humor they have, there are a number of RedHerrings, but typically if it's discussed for more than one sentence, it's important.

Chew Toy: Carter. He's always in the middle of whatever is messing with the town, and he suffers for it.

In the 2011 Christmas special, the Jeep is brought to life (long story) and proceeds to chew him out for all the abuse it's suffered because of him.

The series finale sees Carter almost crash it after driving through a wormhole into GD. Then workmen have to saw it apart.

Carter: Yeah, that's about right.

Church of Saint Genericus: A church shows up in the second season (very few parishioners), with a moderately Protestant interior and a female pastor in a nice, albeit black, pant-suit with no clerical collar, but with a somewhat Anglican/Catholic tippet (preaching scarf), though without any other vestments. It's the First Church of Eureka, no denomination given.

Clingy Jealous Girl: Zane and Allison in season 5, after having experienced a simulated reality set 4 years after they'd disappeared and where Matrix!Jo and Matrix!Carter had hooked up. The fact as scientists, seeing a highly accurate computer projection based on what might occur in those circumstances, doesn't alleviate their jealousy upon returning to reality.

Particularly after a bodyswap mishap causes Carter to keep swapping during times where Zane is either in the shower with Jo or when Zane impulsively kisses her whilst in his body.

Cloudcuckoolander: Pretty much everyone in the entire town to some degree, but Taggart is easily the biggest. To give you an idea, in one episode Sheriff Carter finds him naked, about to attack a cell tower with an enormous circular saw, and doesn't consider this to be an indication that anything is out of the ordinary: that's just the sort of thing Taggart does. It's to the point that, in an episode where everyone in town is being driven insane by mutated pollen, Carter can't tell whether Taggart is being affected or not, because he already acts like that anyway.

Cool Old Guy: It's easy to forget that Henry is implied to be a fair bit older than many of the other characters, precisely because he is so cool and easy-to-relate-to. Stark refers to Henry as being his teacher, which while not necessarily implying a large age gap, indicates that Henry was already an established scientist of skill and note when Nathan was still just starting out. The actor who plays him is more than 20 years older than the actors who play Carter and Stark.

Cosmic Retcon: In the Season 4 premiere, the original series timeline is effectively permanently erased. The past three years of plot, drama, and character development? Poof, gone. Especially noticeable with Zane, who outright reverted to his initial characterization (and is working his way back).

Interestingly though, something only the science geeks would get the hint that the original 3 seasons were not set in our universe, while seasons 4 and 5 are (except for the existence of Eureka, Warehouse 13 and Alphas). Putting aside the Warehouse 13 crossover, but the concept of the Einstein-Rosen-Podowski bridge was always referred to as the Einstein-Grant bridge in Eureka until they brought the founder to the future in season 4.

Covered in Gunge: In the first episode of the second season, Taggart demonstrates the effects meson particles can have on human flesh.

Carter: I'm gonna go take a shower... I'm covered in human.

It's a regular enough occurrence that in the last episodes of the series, Carter and Jo make a bet as to what's going to go disastrously wrong with the latest experiment. Carter takes "massive explosion", Jo takes "covered in goo".

Crazy-Prepared: Taggart tries to be this, but the only real qualifier is the government of the Town of Eureka. Any organization that has resurrection forms on file knows it's ready for anything, no matter how weird.

Crazy Survivalist: Taggart again. Semi-subverted in that he's actually fairly friendly most of the time, and his Crazy Survivalist behavior is occasionally useful. Really, his first few episodes made him seem like a stock one of these that had somehow snuck into Eureka by mistake, but he quickly began showing traits of his intelligence, multiple doctorates, and even nerdiness. He's just weird because most Eureka scientists are weird about their specialty, and his is animal behavior/biology/Santaology.

Cringe Comedy: The entire town seems to conspire to put Jack (and Fargo) in humiliating or embarrassing situations as often as possible. Especially towards love interests.

Doom Magnet: As of season 5, Douglas Fargo is considered one in-universe.

According to the Lotus-Eater Machine recreation of S.A.R.A.H. it had been 1468 days since the last major incident at Global Dynamics, roughly the same amount of time (4 years) that Fargo had been missing with the Astraeus team. Given that the Matrix was designed with multiple predictive algorithms, to create a highly accurate projection of what would happen in those circumstances, one has to wonder about what that says about Fargo.

Dude, Where's My Respect?: Sheriff Carter gets no respect for the first 2 or three seasons, even when he's the one who ultimately saved the town from the problem of the week most episodes. Instead, they opt to point and laugh at him for not knowing that OLSN stands for Overly Long Scientific Name. Its only later on that they begin to take his ideas and opinions seriously.

Dumbass Has a Point: While he is not stupid, Sheriff Carter is a man of average intelligence in a town full of super-geniuses, and is often on the receiving end of this.

Dumb Blonde: Subverted by Zoe, who turns out to have an IQ of over 160. Not played straight by anybody. Carter is the least intelligent Eureka resident we know of, and even his IQ is 111; still above average.

Possibly subverted by Carter, whose IQ test was when he was young and admittedly not trying. He has a high ability to adapt to new and strange situations and think more creatively than most residents. It is even hinted at that that he may be a genius in his own right.

Early Installment Weirdness: In early episodes, it's implied that the existence of Eureka is top secret and blabbing about it will earn you a bullet in the head. Later episodes show the friends and families of main characters popping in whenever they please.

The pilot in general has a few differences. Henry has an assistant who runs the shop by Henry's garage, and is only seen a few times after the pilot.

Global Dynamics is little more than a corridor with each section forming a room branching off from it, including Section 5 which has an entire floor to itself in the series proper. Even stranger considering Section 5 is where most season-spanning plots are involved.

Nathan Stark is no where to be seen, despite being the head of GD and likely privy to the information of an outsider visiting a top secret research facility. Though when he does make an entrance, it quickly becomes apparent why he might not have intervened... Or cared.

Sheriff Cobb seems like a well respected figure in the town, yet after this episode he's never seen again. He's barely even mentioned, with Jack compared to him a few times in season 1 by Lupo and Stark, and once regarding his old hut being passed onto Carter... Who only learns about this half way through season 5.

It was also the only episode to air as a full 'double length' episode. Others had stories that spanned several episodes, but the pilot aired almost as a made-for-TV movie.

Eureka Moment: Virtually every episode involves Carter realizing how to fix the problem.

Engineered Public Confession: When genius scientist Jason Anderson drops by with his wife (Henry's former ex), various odd events occur. Carter, Henry and Allison soon realize that Anderson is nothing but a fraud, using a memory-wiping device to make scientists who discover breakthroughs forget about them and then claim their work as his own. It also appears he used it on his wife to make her forget how she and Henry were lovers. The wife finds out and steals the device, using it on the trio but (thanks to a camera he wore just in case) Jo sees it and lets them know what happened. Carter finds Jason in the middle of a dangerous experiment and tells him his wife knows the truth. He tries to claim he knows nothing about this but Carter points out his wife could have sabotaged the experiment. He says that that should be no problem...if Jason indeed came up with it all and can shut it down. Instead, Jason begs his wife to tell him how to fix it, exposing the truth and an angry Stark fires him (with hints of criminal charges coming soon after). As it turned out, his wife did nothing at all to the experiment but counted on Jason's own fear giving him away.

Even Evil Has Standards: Beverly turns on Senator Wen after she kills Holly — apparently she's many things, but she's not a killer, at least in the new timeline anyway.

Every Car Is a Pinto: The second season episode where Carter saves Fargo from a truck whose driver falls asleep at the wheel; just afterward, the truck sideswipes a parked car that immediately explodes.

Everybody Is Single: Stark and Blake were married. Then divorced. Then engaged. Then Stark was dead.

Subverted with Henry in the fourth season. Time travel antics have made it so he's married to a woman whose name he doesn't remember.

Nathan's actor is pretty candid about the fact that the character is more or less Tony Stark, sans armor.

There's quite a bit of Jack O'Neill about Carter... again starting with the name. (Though he's a lot less bitter.)

Fargo has a little bit of Peter Parker to him, even to the point of being the wisecracking nerd that it seems like the other superheroes... er, scientists barely tolerate. Bonus points for him following Stark around like a puppy during the period where Spider-Man was doing the same with Iron Man.

Taggart is clearly inspired by Steve Irwin, an excitable Australian outdoorsman with an expertise in animal biology.

Failsafe Failure: The front door to S.A.R.A.H. has a "manual override" which doesn't work if the house'still has power. Manual overrides are supposed to open doors regardless of whether or not it has any power supplied...

Whenever Carter asks "Can't we unplug it?" (which is frequently) there's always some reason why that will no longer work.

In "The Story of O2", Larry removed the self-destruct system from his rocket to save weight.

Fate Worse Than Death: Senator Wen is trapped in a computer simulation that consists only of the Sheriff's office and nothing else, all alone. And it's implied only Beverly knows she's in there. Ends as of the series finale.

Feet of Clay: Several times, it'll turn out a supposed great person or top scientist is not what they appear to be.

Jason Anderson is said to be an uber genius who comes up with many great theories and devices when he works with groups. It turns out that he's just stealing the work of other, truly talented scientists and using a device to wipe their memories so they don't even know they're complimenting him on their own work. He also used it to make his wife forget she and Henry were a couple. Eventually, she finds out, naturally pissed and helps expose him.

When Fargo's uncle, frozen in 1957, is thawed out, it turns out he's the true genius behind much of the work that helped put Eureka on the map and when he vanished, his partner claimed the research as his own.

After spending the night with Jo, SARAH comments that Zane has an electrolyte imbalance and offers him a sports drink.

Carter attempts to jump through a closing-up wall modeled after a spaceship's hull, gets the tie he's been forced to wear caught, and is in danger of actually being choked to death. When Allison asks what's wrong, he answers with a strangled "I'm in deep ship". Reportedly, actor Colin Ferguson was annoyed at Eureka for constantly trying to slip crap past the censors and refused to do another take, actually making the line sound more like he really swore.

A pretty blatant episode, and an indication that some of the Insufferable Genius characters are obviously trying to provoke these reactions from Carter on purpose:

"Can't a man masticate in peace?"

"Not in public!"

"''It means chew!"

In Worst Case Scenario, it is a "bad time for premature evacuation".

In the 2011 Christmas special, Deputy Andy is turned into a clay robot when he, Jo, and Jack are forced to climb a snowy mountain.

Andy: I'm freezing my nuts off! And my bolts!

A pervasive one: depending upon your background, the constant use of "G.D." to refer to Global Dynamics may recall either a schoolyard euphemism for "god damn" or the way some (primarily Jewish) people avoid writing out the name of the deity and instead write "G-d." Or both.

In "Smarter Carter" Andy comes home for some "afternoon delight" with his girlfriend Sarah.

A somewhat literal example: in "Insane in the P-Brane", Dr. Drechmeyer is obsessed with TIRD particles. "TIRD" is pronounced the same as "turd", a euphemism for excrement. "Drech" is pronounced the same as "dreck", a Yiddish word for excrement. "Meyer" has several possible meanings, one of which is "overseer". You do the math...

As though driving the point home, one time Dr. Drechmeyer refers to himself as "The Drechman."

Grey and Gray Morality: GD is definitely A Lighter Shade of Grey, but they are essentially a weapons lab for the military, a fact that is regularly pointed out. On the other hand, the Consortium started out as a group of scientists opposed to the DoD's secretive weapons testing; by the end of the show they're still on the level of Well-Intentioned Extremist despite being unambiguously the bad guy.

Gone Horribly Right: Pretty much every single experiment causes disaster when it succeeds. Unless it's ...

Grand Theft Me: Beverly takes over Allison's body with some sort of transmitter embedded in her brain, as a plot to download Eureka's research archive as well as do some other unspecified sabotage.

Carter takes over Fargo, Zane and Allison after an accident causes him to repeatedly bodyswap.

Although most of the matrix's AI's are actually bodyswaps, Holly and Andy are a borderline Grand Theft Me. It's still their own personality and memories, but their desires and motives have been swapped for the primary AI's.

When Carter's ex-wife, sister, and sister's boyfriend show up and interact with Eureka technology/GD, no one even bats an eye. They could have signed a non-disclosure agreement off-screen, but that's bordering on Fan Wank, and it's a major shift from the paranoia in the pilot. The sister's boyfriend, at least, is a brilliant scientist in his own right, but there's no indication he's familiar with the town.

In the town's defense, it's only Jo who seriously broaches the possibility of "silencing" Carter. No one else seems to seriously consider her suggestion; it seems there are good reasons why she is never considered for the position of Sheriff.

Played absolutely straight with Holly. When she figures out that the Astraeus crew is trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine, she's murdered on the spot to keep the ruse intact.

Historical In-Joke: When Henry was explaining the device that brought them to '47, he referred to a theory worked on by Einstein and Dr. Grant regarding the connection of two points of space/time that Henry referred to as the "Einstein-Grant" bridge. Since Grant got jumped to 2010 by the end of the episode, that gives them call to refer to it as we all know it, the "Einstein-Rosen" bridge.

Holding Back the Phlebotinum: The whole town. Though a lot of it is experimental tech, there is an equal amount of fantastic gadgets that are completely safe yet haven't made it outside the town. One episode justifies this as simply a matter of cost: they can cure the common cold, but it costs $6 million while a bowl of chicken soup costs $5.

Idiot Ball: In-Universe example. Most of Eureka's citizens turn into idiots after eating a new type of artificially cloned chicken meat.

Idiot Hero: Carter, though it helps when everyone in town is a mad scientist who needs to be protected from themselves.

Incredibly Lame Pun: When another AI overtakes SARAH it points a giant laser at Zoe, Zoe asks "Is this some kind of house arrest?".

In Spite of a Nail: The Alternate Timeline in the fourth season, despite removing a key figure in Eureka's founding altogether, has changed almost nothing. In fact, all the characters' lives actually seem to be better for it. There is the problem of Jo having never started a relationship with Zane in this timeline, but that's balanced out by her now being in charge of GD security.

Henry lampshades one of the instances where it is changed, where Kevin no longer has autism, pointing that no one knows what causes autism in the first place, so it's impossible to figure out how that changed.

In Theory: Practically Once an Episode. Whenever some bit of Phlebotinum threatens the town, Carter turns to either Henry, Allison, or Nathan (or some combination thereof) for an explanation. Said explanation usually begins with "Well, theoretically..." Carter lampshades this in later seasons by repeatedly saying "I hate that word!"

I Want My Jetpack: Dr. Grant actually complains that the Eureka of alternate-2010 is too pedestrian (on first blush at least) by the standards of 1940s visions of the future. It's actually Fridge Brilliance when you realize that Eureka (and the US government) probably goes to great lengths to appear as nothing more than a sleepy little bucolic town should any uninvited out-of-towner make their way there and take too long to leave (say, a certain Federal Marshal and his wayward daughter). Subverted upon meeting the robot deputy and going to GD; he is suitably impressed once he gets past the mundane exterior of the town.

Just Friends: Allison/Jack. Particularly discussed in the episode Stoned, after years of sporadic relationship teasing that was getting wearisome for some by that point (and season 4 had seemed to stress the just friends angle). How things developed afterwards...

In a straighter example, Jack and Jo. Professional co-workers and good friends, there's hardly any sexual tension between them. To the point where, when Carter has to demonstrate "inappropriate workplace behavior" with Jo for a sexual harassment seminar, the two can't get through the exercise without breaking out laughing. When they find out "Matrix Eureka" decided the two of them would make a good couple, they're the only two who recognize how implausible that is.

She's back, as her personality is alive in the form of a sentient hologram.

Lampshade Hanging: In the 2011 Holiday episode, which involves the cast being in several animation styles, SARAH epilogues on the show and talks about the questionable canon status of the episode.

SARAH: Some of you may wonder if this animated tale is true. You can believe it. Or not. But you did hear it from a talking house, so anything's possible.

In the first episode introducing Sarah, Carter calls a help line number Fargo left him, only to be greeted by Fargo (poorly) imitating a female voice. Carter immediately asks if that's Fargo with a feminine voice. Fargo's actor is also SARAH's voice actor.

Large Ham: All of the actors while playing the evil matrix versions of themselves, but special note goes to Colin Ferguson.

Laser-Guided Amnesia: Happens to Holly after being taken over by the Matrix, then blasted by the device that takes out the AIs, making her forget everything from after she first came to Eureka. Seems to be slowly wearing off over time, especially with Fargo's help.

Jason Anderson uses a device that wipes out short term memory, and Henry later modifies it to target specific long term memories.

Laser-Guided Karma: Senator Wen, who spearheaded the Consortium's plan to stick the Astraeus crew in a virtual reality, is trapped in one herself for a while.

Lotus-Eater Machine: The Consortium traps the Astraeus crew in one after kidnapping them at the end of the previous season, in order to make them work for the Consortium without realizing it.

Love Is in the Air: An ancient spore causes hormones to go wacky in Eureka's men. The men are left behaving normally, but the women are left all turned on like crazy. For at least the first half, the only man the women see as super-desirable is Sheriff Carter, of course. Hilarity Ensues. It's shown later in the episode that if the women get their man, Death by Sex will occur.

Love Makes You Crazy: After his girlfriend dies in the Season 1 finale, Henry seems to get slightly more unhinged. Season 3 sees him getting better, though.

Also, in the episode where Stark gets replicated (see Magnificent Bastard), his jealousy over Carter and Allison makes the situation even worse, because the replicants can tell what he's feeling and act accordingly.

And then there's the episode where Jo is the victim of a genetic switcharoo, simply so the culprit can get close to Fargo and exploit his crush on Jo to try to hook up with him.

Love Triangle: This series seems to love these. It started with Stark/Carter/Allison, then Tess took over for Stark, and that's just Carter. With the new season, Tess gets taken off the bus, then put back on, Carter finally kisses Allison, but now that Eureka founder Dr. Grant is here to stay from 1947, it's sliding towards Carter/Allison/Grant.

As of "I'll Be Seeing You", resolved, at least for the time being, with Grant's departure from Eureka.

And as of "Stoned", Carter's daughter Zoe gets a Type 4 of her very own now that she's hooked up with Zane.

Evolves into a full-fledged triangle as of "I'll Be Seeing You", as Jo and Zane share a passionate if spontaneous kiss less than a minute before Zoe enters the room.

Not to mention passionately sharing electrolytes in Carter's guest room, according to SARAH.

Season 4.5 sees the development of yet another triangle: Fargo/Marten/Parrish.

Early seasons toyed with/hinted at a love triangle between Jo/Fargo/Taggart then Jo/Fargo/Zane, but never really acted on them.

Mad Scientist: Pretty much everyone except Carter, Jo, and Zoe, and Zoe has been leaving her father in the dust since midway through Season 2. But this may have something to do with Carter's IQ being 111 and Zoe's is 155.

TAGGERT! Oh god, Taggert. He does the craziest things in town (tranqing Carter and stuffing him into a cage, anyone?)

Henry is the closest thing to an aversion, but he's borderline at best.

Magical Negro: Henry starts out as this, later averted to some extent.

Major Injury Underreaction: Andy reacts to the various accidents that befall him with what can be summed up as a "Isn't that something?" attitude. Of course, he is a robot.

Market-Based Title: Known as A Town Called Eureka in the UK, as the simple Eureka title had already been used for a children's educational series about historical inventions.

Memento Macguffin: The engagement ring that original timeline Zane gave Jo becomes this once their relationship gets erased from reality. Her throwing it back at what she thinks is a hallucination of Zane but is actually the real Zane is the catalyst for him finding out about their... interesting history.

The Millstone: Fargo. If he appears in an episode, it is either to kick off the disaster or to make it worse. Addressed in-universe.

Starts to become subverted in season 4. Sorta. Now it's his his Alternate Timeline self, whom he's replaced, that is causing the problems by virtue of Fargo having none of that Fargo's memories.

Moon-Landing Hoax: Inverted. Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1962, but the US didn't go public with it until 1969. However, all moon rocks out in the world are fake, and the majority of them are kept in Eureka.

Mundane Utility: Even in the show's opening credits. Laser lawnmowers, antigravity baby carriages, virtual baseball, jetpacks used to fix broken streetlights, an enormous freezer (referred to as Narnia by Zoe) that can reach 0 Kelvin for food, etc.

Slightly subverted in that almost none of these are actually seen in use in the series. Most people drive fairly normal cars, live in fairly normal houses, etc. They tend to just have nicer cell phones and sound systems and so on than in the outside world.

Maybe because the DOD wants to keep the town a secret. No laser lawnmowers, but you can have a nuclear powered car.

While those blatant examples aren't seen, there's still plenty of examples in the show.

No Respect Guy: Fargo, although his new job is making him become far more responsible.

Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Inversion; the unusual is normal. The school science fair would probably be stunned by someone entering a baking soda volcano. These people annually race rockets around the moon!

Sheriff Carter was floored when Andy told him that somebody robbed a bank. He was so used to the disaster of the week being a "quantum runaway something or other" which threatened to destroy the town that the thought of a simple bank robbery thrilled him to no end. Of course, it then turned out that the entire bank was supposedly stolen, building and all.

The Nth Doctor: The robot Sheriff-later-Deputy Andy was played in his first two appearances by Ty Olsson. In "The Story of O2", he's replaced by Kavan Smith, better known as Evan Lorne in Stargate Atlantis. He changed his appearance. He likes the new cheekbones.

An episode actually had SARAH determine that if Carter and Henry left town, it would almost certainly be destroyed.

Also subverted in one episode where most of the population of Eureka gets converted into idiots, including Henry. Gathering everyone in Global Dynamics who hasn't been affected to solve the Crisis Of The Week results in a "chemist, a botanist, a math theorist, and a...lepipotamusnote lepidopterist" being tasked with repairing the particle shielding on an experiment that simulates the Big Bang before it goes off. Unsurprisingly, none of them has a clue about theoretical astrophysics or string theory. They do manage to solve the idiocy problem, though.

Pretty much all of the main character scientists fit this role, knowing whatever that week's episode requires them too, with the exception of Taggert. With one or two exceptions, the writers have been pretty good about generally confining his area of expertise to biology. Most suspects of the mystery of the week also avert this, since whodunnits get much harder to solve when everyone is an expert at everything and therefore any one of the suspects could've done it.

Most of the people who do this actually have some excuse, at least. Henry is easily the oldest of the main cast, meaning he's had more time to accumulate the knowledge necessary to be omnidisciplinary. Stark and Allison, both having prominent positions in GD (Allison even before she became head of GD) would have numerous projects explained to them by specialists, so all it would really require is a good memory to be familiar with the basic aspects of most fields of study.

Most of the main cast also have clear specialties, even if they know a lot of stuff outside their field. For example, Fargo and Stark are both quantum physicists, and Allison focuses on biology and medicine.

This trope is often averted on smaller levels. Many times the complication of the week requires advanced knowledge of a specific field, requiring Carter to work closely with a specific scientist, typically the one who started the situation.

Played very straight in the last season when Holly, who is explicitly an Astro-physicist, knows enough to work with advanced biological and cybernetic technologies. While people find this strange, it's only because she's focusing on it, instead of continuing her normal studies.

Once an Episode: A charred corpse or the lines "We'll have to evacuate the town" or "It will leave Eureka a mile-deep crater."

"Get me a list of everyone working in [insert field here]" and Henry simplifying his Techno Babble regarding that week's deadly gizmo using a simile also qualify.

It's up to Sheriff Carter to disable a dangerous runaway phenomenon by carrying a jury-rigged or repurposed device as close to ground zero as possible.

Only Sane Man: Sheriff Carter. It's later implied that the security/law officers are this in every town of scientists.

Pass the Popcorn: After Jo's wild night of karaoke and Fargo-kissing, she wakes up hungover and remembering none of it. When Fargo shows up with flowers, SARAH is happy to be a witness, but Zoe doesn't feel like leaving and stands watching the delicious awkwardness while snacking on something.

Sheriff Andy to Carter: I have recalculated it. Seems the odds are better when you are around.

Police Procedural: Quite a few of the episodes. Lampshaded in "What About Bob?" when Carter joins the biosphere "reality show" that several Eurekans watch.

Product Placement: While slightly present since the start (All the video phones in Eureka apparently use Cisco Systems), became blatant and omnipresent in season 3. They at least attempt to justify it by throwing in a new boss who implements what causes it in an effort to make the research done in the town more profitable, but (as Real Life Comics nicely captures) it's still painful to watch. Especially given that... "Here Come The Suns" is pretty much one long ad for Degree, and in "If You Build It..." Jo, Fargo, and Fargo's Smart Car Tabitha (a LeBaron convertible) unabashedly extol the Subaru Impreza WRX.

Puppet King: Mansfield implies that Fargo was made the head of GD because he would play ball, and warns Fargo that he can easily be replaced. Then again, Mansfield may believe this is just what the position is.

Double Subverted with Tess. She takes a job in Australia, and Carter is invited to come along (which the viewers know he won't). Next season, she's broken up with him, and it seems she's on the bus... until Carter and company accidentally screw up the timeline, making it so Tess never left and is in fact moving in with Jack. Except then, Jack puts her back on the bus because the whole time travel thing has made their relationship awkward and he's convinced it won't work.

Really 700 Years Old: 107 to be exact, but Eva Thorne/Mary Perkins now ages slowly thanks to her own genetic wackiness + lab experiment gone wrong.

Reed Richards Is Useless: The entire premise of the show is that a secret city of supergeniuses is constantly working to create fabulous scientific breakthroughs. They're said to be responsible for every technological breakthrough since the thirties, but their tech is still decades beyond the rest of the world. This is addressed in universe in one episode. Most of the tech will require massive amounts of testing and refining before it is A) safe, B) viable, and C) cheap. For example, the cure for the common cold costs $6 million dollars.

Also, it's usually Carter (who, while a reasonably bright guy, is still the dumbest guy in town by virtue of literally everyone, his own daughter included, being a world-class genius) who has to solve the problem of the week, because the brainiacs are either A) too busy being victimized by it, B) trying to come up with something sciencey instead of just hitting it with a hammer, or C) the person who created the experiment that caused the problem, who refuses to believe their brilliant idea could possibly go wrong.

Reluctant Mad Scientist: This issue pops up in the show now and again. Several characters (Henry and Dr. Grant, for example) express distaste at how Global Dynamics, which is funded primarily by the DOD, seems to be more interested in turning out strategic advantages rather than focusing on scientific advancement to prevent war per the spirit on which the town was founded. Other characters (Nathan and Allison) are quick to point out that such work would not exist without the funding the DOD provides, and thus they must be mad scientists if they want to pursue work which will benefit mankind as a whole.

Reset Button: Zig-zagged. If Carter ever loses his job, or looks like he will, the button will be pressed. The show makes no attempt to disguise this, having literally titled one of their episodes "Welcome Back Carter" right after the one where Carter was fired. At other times, it's avoided when you wouldn't think so (Stark's death, for example, since he asked to be written out). Also used at the end of season one, which is utterly heartbreaking because it's one of the few times you don't want the button to be pushed.

Surprisingly averted in the fourth season. Carter and friends accidentally create an Alternate Timeline, and the viewer is convinced the button will be pushed. Instead, events keep conspiring to prevent the button from being pushed, so this new timeline is here to stay.

Reveal Shot: Several in the opening credits for seasons 1 and 2. These serve to emphasize how the town uses awesome gadgets to perform mundane functions. Most of them involve anti-gravity in some form, and all are likely Awesome, but Impractical.

Ridiculously Human Robots: Raynes in episode 8. The dog robots in the second season. Sheriff Andy. The Kim-from-space probably counts as a borderline example; she's a living computer.

A minor one that spans the entire series is Carter buying someone something as a gift, only for them to get one as a gift from someone else before he has a chance to present it.

Alternatively, they present an even better, super-high-tech version of his gift. The gag reaches its crescendo during Alison's baby shower, where Jack removes one item after another from his gift basket as someone else presents it to Alison, until finally: "and my gift to you is...a basket!"

Also technically GD as it has been seen in the series since then. Considering the pilot had little more than a single hallway that connected all the sections (including the top secret section 5) together.

Also in "Glimpse", is The Cameo for Stan Lee, who provides a Shout-Out to The Hulk. He appears as Dr. Lee, specializing in the effects of gamma radiation, you can call him Generalissimo, and "Don't make me angry, you won't like me when I'm angry."

Also, Bear McCreary decided to play a tribute with "The Lonely Man Theme" from the Hulk TV Series playing in the background during that scene. Which was slightly adapted to resemble the "McCreary Eureka Theme" (the one in the credits and in the background from season 2 onward).

When Andy is instructing people on evacuation, Jo adds "You heard Mr. Data, keep it movin'..."

Early in the second season, Carter asks Kevin what day of the week was November 3rd, 1957. Although both of them get the day wrong (it was a Sunday), it was the day that Laika the spacedog died.

Henry is seen watching Dexter's Laboratory in the episode when most of Eureka accidentally becomes stupid.

In season 5, several characters are kidnapped and put into a computer simulation of Eureka. Not only do the characters instantly equate this to The Matrix when they learn, they never refer to it by any other name from that point on.

Holly: We've tried everything. We've tried yoga, meditation... Fargo: Well, there is one thing we haven't tried... Holly: You mean... Oh... The scene cuts to the two of them playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Sitcom Archnemesis: Fargo seems to find a new one of these once every few episodes. Often they're the first victim of the disaster of the week. He also has longer-term nemeses Larry (until the universe-hop makes him into Fargo's personal assistant instead) and Doctor Isaac Parrish (who has lasted since the Astraeus mission Story Arc began, and has been The Rival to Fargo for most of their lives in the new universe).

Smart People Play Chess: The first couple of seasons prominently feature Eureka's townsfolk playing chess outside Café Diem, and when Henry is in prison, Jack refers to his visits with Henry as his "weekly Chess whipping", implying that Jack doesn't have a head for the game.

Strange Minds Think Alike: In This One Time At Space Camp... Fargo and Holly are talking about ways to calm down and get ready for an upcoming interview.

Zane: We'll use SARAH to slip into the back-door of GD. Fargo: Uh, we? Zane: Once a back-door link is established, there's nothing I won't have access to. Fargo: Uh, I think you mean there will be nothing that I have access to. Jo: Boys, there is plenty of back-door access for everyone! (awkward pause) Jo: That didn't come out right.

In the Pilot

Sheriff Cobb: (hangs up the phone) That was Ned Carver. He claims aliens abducted some of his cattle again, so... Jo: Tell him to call me when they move on to anal probes. [Cobb and Zoe stare] Jo: Wait, um... that didn't come out right.

In Founder's Day

Dr. Grant: There's a woman in the brig with some injuries you should take a look at. Also, there's a naked man in there for some reason. Allison: I'll go take a look. (beat) Allison: At the injuries, not the naked guy. Dr. Grant: I'm glad you clarified.

Holly Marten gets three in a row in Of Mites And Men, referring to slipping through a security door that got stuck partly open.

Holly: I can do eight inches! I have very limber joints! (later, referring to getting stuck halfway through the door) Is it too late to cover myself in something slippery?

When explaining why she wants a body instead of living as a hologram: "You can't imagine spending your entire life not being able to touch yourself." Henry and Zane proceed to look at each other as she doesn't realize what she said.

This, from Jo:

"I was tangled up with Zane... With his thing... With his pardon."

In the series finale:

Carter, to Fargo: You need to put your thing in the hole before it blows! (A very long Beat as everyone stares at him)

Incidentally, this was just after Fargo and Holly had an emotionally touching moment.

From "Unpredictable":

Carter: So, you gonna come to Zoe's surprise party?

Allison: Oh, me? I thought you were into young brunettes?

Carter: No, no, I'm into old brun… *trails off as he realizes what he's saying*

Tyrant Takes the Helm: Season 3 introduces Frances Fisher as "Fixer" Eva Thorne, who at first lived up to the role in spades, then became more sympathetic as we got into her motivations.

Wham Episode: "Founder's Day". An odd case of one being used as a season premiere rather than a season finale.

The Real Thing ends with Holly dying.

What Happened to the Mouse?: Former Sheriff Cobb. Appears for the pilot, gives Carter his job, and is never heard from again (although his cabin appears as a "honeymoon cottage" for Allison and Carter). Also, Warren King, the original head of G.D. who is replaced by Stark after the pilot (although presumably he was sent out of town after being dismissed).

Warren King shows up again, in the official comic written by (at least) one of the writers of the show.

Averted in a very literal way in Worst Case Scenario, where Jo is gassed while attempting to capture an escaped guinea pig in the Aggression Lab. The guinea is shown being rescued along with Jo, and then happily wiggling in a nurse's hand at the infirmary.

Spencer Martin appears in the first 7 episodes. Then he's never heard from again, minus a short appearance in Henry's memory recall in You Don't Know Jack. The last we hear from him is as the party DJ in Primal.

Wrote the Book: Allison literally wrote the book on space medicine... or at least her alternate-universe counterpart did, which is almost as good. (She apparently did all the same research, she just never got around to publishing her thesis.)

Averted with Sheriff Andy, Carter's robot replacement. He's not evil (but characters think this is what Carter is thinking when he is initially skeptical of him), not hostile to his predecessor (or anyone for that matter), not incompetent (though too stuck on the rules to do Carter's job right), and performs a Heroic Sacrifice without dying (but the audience is faked out about it for a few seconds).

Martha, initially, but she gets better.

The Alleged Car: Tabitha in "If You Build It..." has a host of mechanical problems, including a cracked engine block. Mostly, though, she's actually a moody AI that's upset because of how long it's been since Fargo "rotated her tires, detailed her dash, or gave her a good buffing".

All Up to You: Halfway through "Omega Girls", everyone in Eureka is rendered unconscious except for Zoe and Jo. Then Jo gets tasered and locked in her own cell and it's just Zoe.

Almost Out of Oxygen: In "Liftoff", Fargo and Zane are stuck in space in a capsule which only has emergency life support. Then they need to use their oxygen tank as an ersatz rocket to avoid a collision with the International Space Station, so they have even less time than the "emergency" amount...

Art Shift: The 2011 Christmas special is one long series of art shifts, thanks to a interactive storybook and a massive photon generator.

Bedmate Reveal: In the season one finale, Carter wakes up next to a very pregnant Allison due to the alternate timeline.

Belief Makes You Stupid: Zigzagged. As a town full of brilliant scientists, Eureka is shown to have very low church attendance. However, church members include Henry and Alison, two of Eureka's smartest people. When incidents that resemble biblical plagues start happening all over town, Henry is the first to assume they are supernatural in origin and he is eventually proven wrong. During the "plagues" the church becomes packed with Eurekans seeking refuge. While the plagues eventually get a scientific explanation, church attendance remains high at the end of the episode.

Big Brother Is Watching: The final season has a four-year timeskip, during which SARAH has taken over GD, Andy and Martha have been mass-produced as a police force, and people can get tazed for talking back to the authorities. They manage to fix things, but this turns out to be an illusion created by Beverly to trick the Astraeus into working for the Consortium without realizing it.

Broken Pedestal: In "Family Reunion," Fargo's uncle Pierre, frozen in 1957, is thawed out. The man is amazed to learn that many of the scientific devices and ideas Eureka was based on are being credited to his partner, Sandrov when Pierre came up with them all. Stark, who counts Sandrov as one of his idols, is naturally unbelieving until Pierre recites perfectly how these devices came to be. Confronted at a party, Sandrov confesses that when Pierre vanished, he decided to claim all his research as his own and Stark is stunned to realize his hero is a fraud.

Brutal Honesty: Jo insists to Zane that they need to be honest with each other to make their relationship work. Zane being Zane, he of course takes that to its logical conclusion and just starts blurting out every thought on his mind, especially the ones he knows will annoy her.

Cast from Hit Points: In 'Liftoff', how do you move your spacecraft without any propulsion? Vent the oxygen!

Played With/Subverted in "This one time at space camp..." It looks like it's going to be one of these, since they have a memory retrieval device, but it's only used in the B plot to flesh out the back-stories of Fargo, Zane, and Lupo, by looking at their childhoods. For the A plot, almost no old footage is shown, they mostly talk about, and do things related to past events, because thanks to an accident with aforementioned device Jack's memories are overriding their Relationship Supervisor's personality.

Cloning Blues: Stark being replicated by nanobots, as in Jo's words, "A whole lot of Starks!".

Close Enough Timeline: Apparently the removal of one of Eureka's founders causes such oddities as a break up no longer occurring, one person no longer being autistic (this one is even lampshaded how strange this is when no one knows the cause in the first place, let alone how it is prevented), and the head of Global Dynamics is now someone who has almost destroyed the townon a number of occasions (and manages to do so again by virtue of his own ignorance of the experiments he was running in the new timeline, which required close supervision).

Closer Than They Appear: "One Giant Leap" has a closer-than-it-appears shot of a black hole in Carter's jeep's rear view mirror.

Cold Snap Season 3 Episode 17 "Have a Ice Day" A ice core sample from the Artic sends Temperatures plummeting and causes the whole town to ice over

Compound Interest Time Travel Gambit: When Grant goes back in time in the mid-season finale, he takes the opportunity to buy some stock to invoke this trope. 63 years later, he's "rolling in it." So much so that in the series finale, after the DoD decided that it no longer wants to finance the town, Grant steps in and buys it himself in order to save it.

Credits Gag: The first episode of season four has a sepia tone and forties style music.

Crowd Song: Henry organizes one as a romantic gesture in "Stoned" on Fargo's advice.

Dead Person Conversation: in "The Ex-Files", Jack, Allison, Henry, Fargo, and Grant find themselves talking to people who were significant to them in their previous timeline. Turns out these people are all Superego archetypes created in their minds by some psychotherapy tech.

Deliberate Values Dissonance: Hand waved away and used at the same time. When time traveling to 1947 it is said that Eureka was always "progressive" (hence why no one notes the varied races of the cast), but when a character is brought back with them, he thinks Smoking Is Cool (as long as you don't have asthma).

Also subverted by Henry, who points out that progressive or not, no one looks twice at a Black mechanic.

Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Everyone in "The Ex-Files" are having hallucinations related to their various unresolved issues. Jo, finally having had enough of the past version of Zane haunting her, tells her hallucination that they never worked as a couple and gives back the engagement ring he gave her... only to realize too late that this is the real Zane she's confessed to. He's rather surprised she has his grandmother's ring.

Extended Disarming: Non-weapon variant during the Horrible Camping Trip in "Momstrosity", when Jack insists on a good old-fashioned no-technology camping trip. Put any devices you're carrying in the box, Fargo.

Failure Is the Only Option: "Of Mites and Men" showed that Dr. Parrish was never going to be selected for the Astraeus Mission. Thorough out the whole episode while all of his teammates were desperately trying to prevent their cell from collapsing he narcissistically focused solely on his own project.

"Freaky Friday" Flip: "Your Face Or Mine" (Jo and Julia) and "Jack of All Trades" (Jack is a focal point for several flips).

Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the pilot episode, the letter Jack gets at the end when he is made the sheriff of Eureka states that Eureka is in Washington instead of Oregon like the rest of the show indicates.

In 'Glimpse', the PAL briefly shows Jo a list of Zane's aliases. David Lightman and Stephen Falken are characters from the film WarGames, I.P Freely is a reference to the earlier episode 'Liftoff'.

Good Shepherd: The pastor of the First Church of Eureka, who offers solace to frightened Eurekans during a series of seemingly supernatural events. She's even completely non-judgmental towards Carter's "fair-weather" Christian tendencies.

Graceful Loser: Allison's brother Marcus, who is himself a famous scientist. Jack, after accidentally gaining Super Intelligence, points out several flaws in his book in front of his audience. Like a true scientist, Marcus is happy to have these flaws pointed out and gladly works with Jack to refine his theory.

I Warned You: Colonel Briggs called a meeting when informed of the events in the pilot episode.

Briggs: Wake up the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Gather everybody in the sitroom, tell them the topic of the discussion will be "I Told You So!"

Idiot Ball: Allison grabs this hard in "The Story of O2". In a move worthy of Cracked, she uses an experimental compound designed to terraform Mars to enhance her son Kevin's rocket fuel so he'll win a race. No points for guessing what happens.

Indy Escape: The season 4 Christmas special features Carter running away from a gigantic Christmas ornament.

Instant Costume Change: As a gag in "In Too Deep", Zane laces Jo's clothes with nanomachines, allowing him to change her outfit instantly from wherever he wants. She ends up Hell-Bent for Leather twice, to fit with her demands for discipline. Jo turns it around on him in a nicer way, switching his casual clothes for a nice suit.

Jerkass Has a Point: Even though he was incredibly callous in saying it Perish was right in "Friendly Fire" when he said that Fargo was grieving so couldn’t really be counted on to make rational decisions

Parish has a tendency to do this, this exchange from "Up in the Air" being one example:

Carter: Hey! It disrupts... the Higg's Field! You should put it somewhere safe!

Parish: Oh, you mean like in a bank?

Carter Yeah, that's... I see your point.

Kick the Dog: Played straight in "One Giant Leap", then pulled back. When the Astraeus mission is finally about to begin, Fargo taunts Dr. Parrish about how much it must suck to be left out of being the first humans on Titan. In a surprisingly humanizing moment for the otherwise mustache-twisting character, we get this:

Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "What About Bob?" Jack and Allison explore Lab 27 while the citizens of Eureka watch as if it were a reality show. Some of their comments seem to be talking about the show itself.

In the finale, an entire scene in Fargo's office seems to relate doubly to the town shutting down and the cancelling of the series.

Larry: It's a difficult time for all of us, sir.

Fargo: But it was going so great. Our work has never been better, our performance exceeded expectation.

Larry: President said it was a budget issue.

Fargo: Does Los Alamos have a budget issue? Or Area 51? I mean, we paved the way for those guys.

Larry: It's a cruel system. But at least they gave us 6 more weeks to wrap it up.

Carter: A hypothetical guy falls maybe fifty feet, lands flat on the ground, and then another guy weighing 180 falls, and lands on top of him. Okay, what is the chance of the hypothetical guy getting up and walking away? [...]

Henry: Look, this hypothetical guy: is that you?

Carter: No. I landed on the hypothetical guy, though.

Locked in a Room: Larry and Fargo in "If You Build It..."; Zane and Fargo in "Liftoff".

One episode has the cast thrown into an alternate universe, where Henry finds himself married to a woman he only knew for 3 minutes in the original universe,. Inverted, sort of, with Jo Lupo, who was engaged to Zane in the original universe, but now completely uninvolved with him.

There was another instance where a future Eureka was threatened by Henry's actions in the past (yay Time Travel Tense Trouble) and Jack had to go back and fix it. In the future, he was married to Allison. Thanks to the fix, it now never happened.

Measuring the Marigolds: One episode opens with a preacher (in the apparently non-denominational First Church of Eureka, though it has tones of Anglicanism) talking about the wonder of discovery. The Mystery of the Week is due to a parishioner wanting to build a portal to heaven to be reunited with her dead husband, but the pastor and her science-devoted parishioners agree that there's no conflict between science and wonder.

Meta Girl: In "Just Another Day", after Holly has had her memory wiped, she goes around town observing everyone to try and get it back. A number of things she says, whether about Carter, Fargo, or the town itself, dovetail rather neatly with the fans' opinions of the show and its characters.

Not So Above It All: In "Jack of All Trades", Allison gets mad at Jack for not telling Jo that he and Zane swapped bodies (the Lotus-Eater Machine incident having portrayed Jack and Jo as married is something she has yet to get over). When Allison gets swapped with Jack, she proceeds to talk to an (again) ignorant Jo as if she's Carter. Jo calls her on it when she figures it out.

Not the Fall That Kills You: In "Up In The Air" Carter survives a bank falling to the ground from 10,000 feet because he uses a Higgs field distorter to stop the bank's fall abruptly two feet from the ground, at which point it falls the rest of the way calmly. Carter survives falling from 10,000 feet because he stops abruptly two feet from the ground. Surprisingly justified since the Higgs field distorter removes all the mass from Carter and the bank, meaning it takes almost no energy to stop them falling, meaning no splat.

Not What It Looks Like: Inverted when someone walks in on Carter putting on forties clothes in season four. He's in there with Allison. The woman who walked in asks what they're doing, and he says "inventory" with air quotes. She buys it. "You and half the base. Save it for the dance."

Oh, Crap!: Carter-Zane's face when Jo walked into the shower in "Jack of All Trades".

After exiting the matrix Carter had this reaction every time he saw Joe

Ontological Inertia: Adam Barlowe, father of Beverly Barlowe, was saved by Allison in the past after his heart stopped by shocking him with jumper cables. Dr. Grant steals the cables so Adam will die in order to prevent a future tragedy, but Allison just finds an alternate means to save him.

The Password Is Always "Swordfish": In "Omega Girls", the passcode to Jo's detention cell is 0208 on a keypad hidden behind a portrait of President Obama, who was elected the eighth year of the second millennium CE.

Raised Christian: Carter occasionally goes to church but is willing to miss it to watch baseball. The pastor is okay with this.

Red Shirt: In H.O.U.S.E., the bottle episode, a bunch of main/recurring characters are locked together in a room...with a pizza guy. When it's time for things to get serious, the pizza guy gets vaporized. Possibly intentionally as a nod to this trope, he was wearing a red shirt.

Scatterbrained Senior: An early episode involves a long-forgotten relic of the Cold War, and Carter has to hunt down the guy who invented it. Then he has to find a way to get the guy's noodle back in order.

Schmuck Bait: Carter's bi-annual physical examination puts him on a very tall pedestal in the middle of a room, to push a button on the wall. He finds an invisible floor panel, starts walking toward the button... and falls a long, long way.

Second Place Is for Winners: Zoe gets a car out of the Science Fair; she'd much rather have it than the first-place prize of a GD internship. Perhaps this was even intended since given her exposure to GD - especially major figures like Henry, Allison, and her dad - there's no real need for her to intern at GD. She likely could get a job outright simply by asking.

Sentient Vehicle: Tabitha, the AI in Fargo's old LeBaron in "If You Build It..." She gets moody and temperamental when Fargo doesn't take the time to give her proper maintenance or cleaning, and she acts like a jealous ex-girlfriend when Fargo ditches her for a newer car.

Sherlock Scan: Deputy Andy figures out the entire Carter-travelled-to-1947-and-returned-to-an-Alternate-Universe plot after looking at him and fielding a handful of totally innocuous questions.

Shout-Out: A big one in the episode "Glimpse" in the fourth season. Stan Lee has a cameo as a scientist, and his research Involves Gamma Radiation, and he makes direct references to the Hulk, including an image behind him of the X-ray from the opening sequence of the Bill Bixby series.

One for Quantum Leap in episode 5.05 "Jack of All Trades." Carter has begun swapping bodies with various persons who were on the Atraeus. Shortly after "leaping" into Zane, he says "Oh, boy!"

A hilarious one to "Blazing Saddles" in episode 5.06 as Deputy Andy uses a built in cable to save Carter.

Simpleminded Wisdom: Sheriff Carter is usually the source of the blatantly obvious that the brilliant scientists all miss. And near everyone continues to talk to him like an idiot simply because he has to ask about the science behind super secret government research decades ahead of the rest of the world.

Not to mention Kim in "Once in a Lifetime" to save the timeline. And Kim again, or at least Kim 2.0, in "Shower the People" to save the residents of Eureka from a bio-computer virus. Both times the resident Woobie Henry couldn't stop it.

Left the Background Music On: During the episode Games People Play (Season 2 Episode 4) Carter and Zoe make up in a heart touching moment complete with accompanying music, quickly followed by this:

Carter: Sarah what are you doing?

S.A.R.A.H: That was such a beautiful moment, I felt musical accompaniment seemed appropriate.

Sorry Ociffer: Zane does this in "The Story of O2" after crashing a flying scooter thing. He's not actually drunk — he's accidentally high on oxygen.

Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: In "In Too Deep", Carter briefly objects at his own wedding. He wants to make sure that Allison is really marrying him because she wants to, and not just because they're a minute away from drowning.

Super Speed: In 'Blink' a team of scientists take a drug that gives them super speed to keep up with the demands of their job. There was also a time in a earler episode when Carter was shown giving a ticket to a man with some sort of mechanical braces on his leg and saying "Car or no car, the speed limit is 30 miles per hour".

Taken for Granite: In the aptly titled "Stoned". Also terrifying since in this case, they're still alive while it's happening rather than it happening instantly.

Taking the Bullet: Jo does this for Carter in "Reprise". Thanks to Time Stands Still and Brainwashed and Crazy wackiness, she also happens to be the one that shot him in the first place. Thanks to Carter and the bullet being frozen in time, she has ample time to get a vest to block the bullet before taking it.

The Time Traveller's Dilemma: In season 4 episode 2, the main cast have a talk about what it means for them being in the new timeline and Henry warns them of the dangers if they were to tell everyone about what happened. Alison mentions that, like previous crazy situations, there is actually a protocol for it.

And of course Henry folds like a house of cards the moment any pressure is put on him to divulge the secret.

This doubles as a Writer on Board, considering Henry has been keeping his original shenanigans from "Once in a Lifetime" under wraps for several seasons now.

Plus, he was hooked up to a memory-reading machine at the time...

Title Drop: Taken Up to 11 by doing a title sequence drop in Episode 14 of Season 4, where the floating buildings part of the title opener, which has been part of the show since episode 2, is copied including the music as a result of an anti-gravity field.

Too Dumb to Live: Really, Fargo? You live and work in the Town Of Mad Science, and your first impulse on finding a strange machine is to turn it on? By inserting and turning two keys simultaneously? Really?

Took a Level in Badass: Fargo’s status as the new head of GD was fully cemented in the episode “Liftoff” where he and Zane are accidentally launched into orbit, trapped in a capsule that only has functioning life support, artificial gravity…and nothing else. Through out the episode Fargo remained calm and collected solving problem after problem, even joking as Zane freaked out.

He only panicked at the very end after he ran out of idea, allowing Zane to step up. Showing that he can also lead by example.

Undead Tax Exemption: Averted. Part of Fargo's efforts to set the time-displaced Trevor Grant up as Eureka historian include tax records... in which he has mistakenly listed 11 dependents to a single man. Needless to say, the IRS starts investigating. This turns out to be a smokescreen, and it's actually Beverly who's been investigating him.

Un-Paused: Fargo in the season 1 finale. Beverly snaps him out of hypnosis, and he finishes his sentence about how he couldn't possibly be hypnotized.

Unwanted Rescue: At the end of season two, Carter, Stark, and Taggart work their way through to the morgue to stop a deadly flesh eating bacterium. When they get to the morgue they find a lot of staff members hiding from the plague, which they just unleashed into the morgue! Then it turns out that the morgue is where the plague started, which turns it into Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like. Then it turns out the plague was a hoax. Then they have to escape the building, which is on hardcore defense mode.

Love Hungry: Of the Mind Rape variety. SARAH adds an emotional attachment subroutine to Deputy Andy's programming, without permission, so he'll reciprocate her feelings. After a short stint of him trying to woo Jo, SARAH eventually admits to what she's done. Andy thinks it's the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for him, and even asks to keep the program after it's spread to (and been wiped from) every other AI in town. Which leads to his walk of shame in the morning, complete with a very astonished and disturbed Jo and Carter.

This is not as bad as it sounds considering SARAH just gave Deputy Andy the ability to reciprocate her feelings, instead of making him have feelings for her. Hence why he at first started flirting with Jo.

The Watson: Carter usually solves the problems, but he's the Watson when it comes to the town's science or history.

Weirdness Censor: Zig-zagged; the whole town is in on their secret so the weird stuff that happens are just industrial accidents to them but there must be dozens of smokescreens in place in order to prevent anyone outside the town from finding out about the bigger stuff that might leak out.

Carter counters Jo's assertion that Holly's data-ghost is Just a Machine.

Carter: Jo, I live in a robot house and have a robot deputy, maybe we should find what this Holly thing is before we dismiss it!

Fargo abandons the AI in his old car when he gets a chance to upgrade, even though it clearly has a personality and emotions. It's made worse when it turns out he can just move her mind into the new car, the thought just never occurred to him.

White Male Lead: Carter. Possibly lampshaded by Henry at one point. Carter looks at the severed head of a crash test dummy and says "Why does it look like me?" Henry answers "It's generic."

Widowed at the Wedding: Almost. In "I Do Over", Stark dies fixing the "Groundhog Day" problem, and therefore leaves Allison at the altar. Since they were divorced and had not yet said their new vows, this was essentially avoided.

Window Love: Fargo and Holly do this at the end of "Ex Machina". Since she's the victim of an accidental Brain Uploading, it's the closest they can actually come to touching.

Writers Cannot Do Math: "Founder's Day" somehow has an 11-year solar flare cycle which is at its peak in both 1947 and 2010; "I'll Be Seeing You" implies that it probably also peaked in 1939.

With a peak in 2010 and in 1947 a 10.5 years cycle would be accurate. But when explaning this to someone you'd just round off and say eleven years.

11 years" is common approximation, but the length of cycles is actually variable to a point. However, while there was actually a solar maximum in May 1947, there was not one in 2010 (the maximum of the current cycle is expected in 2013, and so far it looks like a weak cycle overall). And the maximum before 1947 was in 1937, not 1939.

Writing Indentation Clue: In the episode "Before I Forget", Carter uses this technique on his ticket book in order to learn the license plate number of the last car for which he wrote a ticket.

You Are With Me: The third-season episode "I Do Over" does this to great effect.

You Just Told Me: The 4th season episode "A New World" has Deputy Andy using this on Sheriff Carter to get him to admit that he and the others did in fact go back in time and are now living in an alternate (to them) timeline. Andy already had figured it out conclusively, he was just making sure. Carter makes fun of this at the end of the episode.

You Must Be Cold: Parodied when Carter and Allison walk into the freezing cold cafe and he ostentatiously gives her his coat. Well, his vest. His orange traffic vest. Which offers no protection. Allison is not impressed.

He was actually doing it as payback for a joke she made about the vest earlier. This was just an excuse to have her wear it.

Your Mom: Dr. Grant gets a good one on Carter in "Momstrocity" without even skipping a beat.

Carter: Well if you were talking about my mom, I'd run off into the woods too. Grant: I'll be sure not to talk about it then.

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